Interview: Trivium goes for the throat with “Shogun”

  When Roadrunner releases the deluxe addition of Trivium’s new album, “Shogun” this week, the list of extra goodies will include video of guitarists Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu teaching aspiring shredders how to play Trivium riffs. Guitar players excited by that prospect had better warm up their fingers, however. Keeping up with guitarists the caliber [...]

Interview: Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt talks about the recording of “Watershed,” new band members and life on the road

Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt says “Watershed,” the band’s ninth opus, isn’t a concept album. But there was definitely a “concept” driving the songwriting process. “This one was all personal lyrics,” Akerfeldt said, during a phone interview before a Sept. 23 concert in Cleveland. “But there was no concept between the songs. It’s based on what happened in my life [...]

Interview: Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved

The members of Enslaved don’t seem to believe in vacations. The band — which was one of the first members of Norway’s black metal scene — spent much of 2007 on the road, playing festivals and doing two tours of the United States in support of their spaced-out, psychedelic Viking epic, “Ruun.” Since then, the [...]